Holiday Break

Hello to everyone,

I just want to let everybody know that there is no academy over the next two weeks due to the holiday break, and that the academy starts up again on Monday January 4th. I would like to encourage all the kids to try to play over the two week break so that they do not get too rusty.

On behalf of all the coaches in the program I would like to wish everyone a Merry Christmas, Happy New Years, and Happy Holidays. See you guys in January.

Drago

Week 12

Hello to everyone,

So we have one more week before a two week break for the holidays. This week we will get the kids to play more points and sets, as we have not done too much of that.

We will teach the kids the right position to return from and how to hit the best return possible. Also as the kids are playing sets and points, we will observe how the things that we worked on are being applied. We will look to see how many of the kids are sticking with the right grips for the serve, volleys and overheads. We will also be looking how early the racquet is going back, and if the kids are looking for the best position with their feet before hitting the ball. We will also be looking at recovery after every shot, and making sure that the feet keep moving during the point. 

Drago

Week 11

Hello to everyone,

So this week we introduced points by starting at the net, where kids have more of a chance to volley and hit overheads, and we saw that kids still revert back to their old grips and habits when playing points. Very few kids stick with the correct grip and arm positions for overheads and volleys that were practiced in the past few weeks.

So for this week, we will continue with starting the points at the net, and we will go back to focusing more on volleys and overheads and making sure that the right grips are being used.

 

We have also started playing more points with serves, and we will continue to do so the in the next two weeks before the Christmas break. When playing points with serves, we will focus on the proper return position and making sure that the player is ready for the first shot after the serve or return. 

Drago

Week 10

Hello Everyone,

So over the past few weeks we have started playing more points from the baseline, while having to hit a certain amount of balls in the court before the point is open. The kids are starting to show progress in terms of the quality of shots, and maintaining longer rallies. We have also continued working on volleys and overheads, grips and arm position, and we will stick to it until all the kids start showing progress in this area.

This week we will continue playing more points but we will introduce starting the point at the net, and coming to the net, to get the kids more comfortable with volleys and overheads from the actual point. We will also continue to work on recovery after hitting a shot, and getting back to our ready position every time after we hit a shot. There is way too much standing and waiting in the same spot where the previous shot was hit, and doing this will get us in trouble for the next shot. Therefore we need to recover after every shot that we hit, to a neutral position behind the baseline. 

Drago

Week 9

Hello everybody,

So this past week the kids have spent a little more time playing points than the previous few weeks. Some of the kids are doing a really nice job of setting up early and looking to get their feet set before they hit the ball, while others still need to continue to improve in that area.

One common thing for almost everybody from playing points is the lack of recovery and getting back to the ready position after every shot. So we will continue to stress the need to recover and get back to the ready position immediately after the shot. This will give us more time to prepare for the next shot and to get set faster, which increases the chances of hitting a better shot, without being rushed. Hitting on the run is obviously more challenging for everyone, so early preparation and getting back to the ready position and recovery are crucial if we want the kids to be able to stay in the point.

Once again we will continue working on early preparation, but making it more challenging and doing it while on the run. 

Also we will be getting back to working on overheads, and making sure the grip and arm positions are right. 

Drago

Week 8

Hello to everyone,

So this week we had spent some time from the beginning of the practice working on the cross-court shot, which is the most common shot hit in tennis, and hitting on the run. We had let kids play points through cross-court rallies, and this was the first week where kids had played more than 10-15 minutes of points. 

As we have told the kids in practice, the basic idea is to get everyone to be able to rally for a longer period of time, keeping the ball in play and not going for too many big shots and trying to hit winners extremely early in the rallies. In the coming weeks, we will continue working on the most basic stuff such as early preparation and trying to be balanced when we hit, while maintaining a rally for as long as possible. Cross-court rallying will be the focus of the practice, as well as finally playing more points with serves. 

The grip changes, arm and racquet position on the serve, overheads and volleys, are starting to show improvement and all the coaches will continue to stay on the kids to make sure that everybody sticks with it.

Drago

Week 7

Hello to everyone,

Over the past few weeks we have stressed the importance of turning and getting the racquet back early, and looking to get in the best position to try to be as balanced as possible when hitting the ball. The kids are starting to show progress and we will continue to remind them about early preparation and making sure that their feet keep moving non stop.

We will be letting the kids play more points from the baseline, right from the start as a warm-up, to get them moving and warming up faster. We find that this keeps them more engaged as opposed to just doing a simple counting drill. We will however put certain requirements, such as the amount of balls needed to be hit in the court for the point to count. The idea here will be to try to encourage the kids to stay more patient and keep the ball in play for a longer period. Right now, most of the kids like to go for a big shot to try to win point very early in the point, regardless if they are set up to go for that big shot or not.

We have also worked hard on volleys and overheads, making sure that the right grips are being used, as well as the arm and racquet are in the right position. We will continue to do this in the coming weeks, as the grip and arm position are corrections that will take a little longer, due to a higher amount of repetitions needed for them to be memorized.

See you guys in practice,

Drago

ORC Academy Newsletter

Hi guys,

Here is the link to sign up for the ORC academy newsletter, where you can get useful information about the ORC tennis academy. 

You just follow the link and input your email if you wish the receive the newsletter: http://eepurl.com/bEgKiL

Drago

Week 6

Hello everyone,

So we have started working on volleys and overheads this past week. We have spent every week so far working on groundstrokes and being able to rally by preparing our racket early and looking to get in the best position where we are balanced before we hit the ball. We will continue to work on this, hopefully through more actual rallying, and not as much basket feeding. If the kids are showing improvement we will be letting them play more points, where rallying a certain number of shots will be required before the point starts.

In the following couple of weeks, we will focus our basket feeding more on volleys and overheads, and teaching the kids proper technique and preparation.

Also, just a reminder again to all the parents, that there will be an informative meeting this Wednesday, November 4th, at 7:30 pm in the ORC restaurant. If you have any questions or just to wish to meet the program leaders and our tennis director, you are all welcome to come.

Happy Halloween to everyone!!!!

Drago and the coaching staff

Week 5

Hi everyone,

So the past few weeks we have spent a lot of time working on technique for groundstrokes, and we will continue to do that this week as well. We will add volleys and overheads into the mix as well. We will try to instill some basic volley and overheads principals, such as the right grip, that most kids are missing.

Finally for this week, we hope to have the kids playing more points while being able to maintain rallies.

Also for all the parents, there will be a parents' meeting with the tennis director, Yves Boulais, and the program leaders on Wednesday, November 4. Everyone is invited and the meeting will be held in the ORC restaurant.

Drago

Week 4

Hello to everyone,

The past three weeks we have done a lot of feeding and rallying where we worked on balance and early preparation. We will continue to work on preparation and balance but we will challenge the kids more with more intense feeding from the basket. We will also start playing some points towards the end of the practice to see if the kids are able to maintain rallies.

Just a reminder to all the kids, as the weather outside is getting colder, it is also getting colder inside the bubble as well. So make sure you come prepared and a bring a long sleeves shirt, preferably a tninner one, in which you can play and move around in comfortably.

Also if any of the kids miss their regular days and wish to do a make up class, please check with me which days there is space for a make-up, as the classes are getting full and there is less space for make ups on some days.

Drago

Week 3

Hello everyone, 

I hope everybody had a good Thanksgiving. So this week we will continue to work on consistency and the general ability to keep the ball in the court. We will try to challenge the kids as we will do more cross-court rallying and change of direction with our regular counting.

We will also continue to work on everybody's technique through feeding, where we get more of a chance for technical correction.

Drago and Mike

Happy Thanksgiving!

Hi everybody,

Just a reminder for those that come on Saturdays and Mondays, that there is no classes on these days due to the long weekend holiday. 

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone from Drago and Mike!

This week's plan

Hi everyone,

So the first week has passed and all the coaches have had a chance to see all the kids' levels.

One of the most important things in tennis is the ability to keep the ball in the court and rally with consistency. So this week, we will continue developing a warm-up routine, where we will work on improving consistency and maintaining rallies.

We will also do a lot of feeding, as many of the kids need technical adjustments in order to better maintain rallies.

Drago

Welcome to the U15/U18 Circuit Blog

Hello to everyone who is following this blog. This is Drago Pokrajac, and I will be leading the U18 Circuit program, and Mike Pietras will be leading the U15 Circuit. Mike and I will be working closely together and observing the kids' progress and making program adjustments as necessary throughout the year. Many times we will be doing the same practice plan for both the U15 and the U18 circuit, and sometimes we will be running different practices.

I would like to encourage the parents and the kids in the program to use this blog to ask questions and give us suggestions if you have any. If you wish to discuss anything in private, please feel free to contact either Mike (mike.pietras@gmail.com) or myself (dragoslav.pokrajac@gmail.com).

The first two weeks in the program we will be doing a lot of hitting, as many of the kids have not played a lot over the summer, and evaluating everyone's level. The first part of the practice we will focus on finding a rhythm and consistency while doing a lot of counting drills. The second half of the practice we will be playing points from different situations on the court. After the first two weeks, we will get into more specific practice plans.